There was some good news for the Edmonton Oilers today, as the team announced that they had inked 2011 19th overall draft pick Oscar Klefbom, arguably the top prospect in the system. Klefbom’s deal is a standard entry-level deal, and will keep him under contract for the next three seasons.

This is a deal that has been in the works for some time now. In late April, we learned that Klefbom was close to signing an entry-level deal, as well as the fact that Klefbom would stay an additional year in the Swedish Elite League.

Klefbom is a difficult prospect to get a read on because he plays limited minutes in Sweden’s top league, but he’s been a standout player on the international stage, representing Sweden on numerous occasions, including early this year at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Bruce McCurdy wrote a detailed scouting report of his work in a game against Finland at that tournament, and suffice to say he came away impressed:

This guy can really skate. Several times during the game he accelerated through the neutral zone – in either direction – and showed an extra gear… Employed primarily in a shutdown role, he stepped it up big time in the back half of the game as Sweden continued to trail… I don’t think he got trapped pinching at any time, and when Sweden did transition from offence to defence he was on his horse going in the right direction on those few occasions he wasn’t already there and waiting. His passing skills didn’t impress, he tended to get pucks airborne but the idea is that they be back on the ice by the time they get to the pass receiver. On the other hand, for a guy who is not a powerplay choice of Roger Rönnberg, he showed off a pretty decent shot, six times in fact during this one. Both slap and wrist shots were low and on goal, with a couple dangerously near the corners that really tested [Finnish goaltender] Aittokallio. Defensively he was fairly aggressive, took the body without running around, good gap control but unafraid to step up to disrupt attacks as they hit the blueline. It’s easy to look bad doing that – ask Theo Peckham – but in this game against this level of competition, the 18-year-old was consistently successful using this tactic. I did spot a few cases of “happy feet”, leading to him being a secondary culprit on the Armia goal. Calming those feet down a tad will be a critical need in his development. The point is to stay in position, not skate through it.

Bruce’s scouting report jibes well with the consensus view of Klefbom, which has him as a strong skater with size and a willingness to use it, and a two-way conscience. The real question about Klefbom is how high his ceiling is offensively – he has just four points in 56 career games in Sweden’s top league, a pace that puts him well behind other top Swedish defensemen at the same age (Adam Larsson, for example, recorded 26 points in his 78-game SEL career). Even so, he’s a first-rate prospect and one that projects to be a good NHL player for a very long time.

Financial details have not been released, but it seems likely that Klefbom’s contract will closely resemble that of other picks in the same range who already have deals:

– Nathan Beaulieu, 17th overall, $925,000 base salary with the potential for an average of $442,500 per year in bonuses

– Mark McNeill, 18th overall, $925,000 base salary with the potential for an average of $342,500 per year in bonuses

– Connor Murphy, 20th overall, $925,000 base salary with the potential for an average of $305,000 per year in bonuses

– Stefan Noeseon, 21st overall, $925,000 base salary with the potential for an average of $305,000 per year in bonuses

In all likelihood, we’re looking at a $925,000 base salary (the rookie maximum) with somewhere in the range of $320,000 per year in bonuses ($92,500 as a guaranteed signing bonus, the rest in performance bonuses).

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